St. Paul police expected to have “active-shooter training” at a St. Paul school Monday but moved it to a school outside the city when they learned the district would charge them to use the school, the head of the police union said Tuesday.

“Everyone is scratching their heads,” Dave Titus said. “It’s an insult that we have to drive out of the district to go to another school.”

The training initially was to be held at Humboldt High School on Martin Luther King Jr. Day when students were out of school, Titus said.

But Jean Ronnei, schools’ chief operations officer, said that since buildings were closed for the holiday, the district would have had to pay a custodian overtime to be in the building during the training exercise. This was the reason for the $300 charge, she said.

Officers could have trained Tuesday at a St. Paul school at no cost. Although students still were off, buildings were open during teacher professional development, Ronnei said.

“I think it ended up being a misunderstanding,” she said.

Howie Padilla, St. Paul police spokesman, said training Tuesday wasn’t an option for police because personnel and equipment already had been scheduled.

The dust-up between police and the school district may speak to longer-standing tensions at play, although both sides said Tuesday they have a good relationship.

In recent years, the district has relied more heavily on private security guards, who work with school resource officers, or SROs. Superintendent Valeria Silva has voiced concerns about saddling students with criminal records, and has told the school board she would consider removing all SROs from the schools.

St. Paul police have done active-shooter training in the past, including school scenarios, Titus said. Police do this training in schools, but not when students are present, he said.

Monday’s training covered how a lone officer would initially respond to an active shooter at a school, Titus said. The officers training Monday were St. Paul police SROs stationed in schools, Titus said. Police sergeants and SWAT officers provided the training, he said.

St. Paul police would rather train officers at schools in the city — it’s an extra opportunity to become familiar with a school’s layout, Titus said — but there is a limited budget for training SROs. The commander who oversees SROs looked for another place to train when she learned of the cost, Titus said. She found Henry Sibley High School in Mendota Heights would host the training for no cost.

“We’re thankful to the folks at Sibley High School to allow us that opportunity,” Padilla said.

The West St. Paul-Mendota Heights-Eagan Area Schools waived its fee for Monday’s St. Paul police training, said Carrie Hilger, district spokeswoman.

“We definitely try to partner with the state or county or any of our police departments,” Hilger said, adding that Sibley High School was a site for a Dakota County Public Health emergency preparedness exercise in the summer and the district did not charge the county.

Titus said Sibley High School “bent over backwards” to accommodate officers’ training.

“For the St. Paul school district to not do it, that doesn’t make sense,” he said. “The district wasn’t willing to put up $300 for cops who are there specifically training to save the lives and protect the lives of the very students and teachers of that district.”

The school district did not know the police union was upset about what happened, Ronnei said.

“We certainly could have addressed that if it had come up,” she said. “Training in our schools with police is extremely important to us. We know we have a wonderful relationship with our police department and want that to continue.”

Humboldt’s principal and custodian were fine with officers training in the St. Paul school Monday, and the next step would have been for the police department to complete the district’s permit process, said Toya Stewart Downey, school district spokeswoman.

The district issues permits to know who is using its buildings, make sure a group has use of a building during the days and hours it wants and to ensure staff is at the building for events, she said.

The district notified the police department it needed a permit that carried the cost of a custodian, based on the custodian’s union contract that calls for overtime pay for working on a federal holiday, Stewart Downey said. Police told the district it had found another school outside of the district, she said.

“If they wanted to request the fee be waived, they could have called and had a conversation about it,” Stewart Downey said, but she noted the district still would have had to pay the custodian overtime.

The school district has a contract with the police department for school-resource officers, but it doesn’t discuss building use, Ronnei said. She said a discussion should occur in the future so there’s clarity.

“We don’t want $300 to be the reason for not having training events in our school buildings,” she said.

Mara Gottfried has been a Pioneer Press reporter since 2001, mostly covering public safety. Gottfried lived in St. Paul as a young child and returned to the Twin Cities after graduating from the University of Maryland. You can reach her at 651-228-5262.

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